iPad's been around for 2 years and has the cult of Mac behind it. The Kindle Fire's been out for 2 months, and Amazon's not exactly a hardware powerhouse. I'd say its doing pretty good.

/Owns a Fire
//Owns an iPad 2
///Uses the Fire way more, because its so much more portable.

Got a Fire for my daughter for Xmas, mainly because it was cheaper than an iPad and I was worried she would trash it.

Result: She hasn't bugged me about the iPad anymore, and my wife now borrows the Fire while daughter's at school. Really nice device.

Enjoy my Fire.

Finally releasing some decent games, and it looks like they fixed the Netflix problems.

Amazon Prime is a pretty good service to have with the device. Prime videos look great.

Totally worth $200

Hm. At $200, it's just so damned tempting. Do they make a car mount for them?

Never mind. If I took the time to actually Google, I'd have a bajillion different answers.

I love my Galaxy Tab 10.1.. After rooting it and throwing in a custom ROM on it because once again Samsung makes incredible hardware but has trained retards developing the software to run on it.

jingks: Is the Fire good for a lot of reading, or is it better to have a separate e-reader and tablet?

I've read about 100 novels on the Xoom since August (I read lots) and I'd say less devices the better. I don't like the grey e-ink screens as much as the standard black and white of a pdf or the yellow page color on one of the android reader apps.

Any tablet should work.

jingks: Is the Fire good for a lot of reading, or is it better to have a separate e-reader and tablet?

I have both: A rooted Nook color and a Sony Touch first gen. I flip between the two, and paper books as well. I've been reading a bit more on the Nook as of late (some books are the same on both the Nook and the Sony, but a few are different and the Nook has less), because it's a bit more responsive, and Aldiko Premium has a lot more features than the Sony has. I find that the Sony's much better for outside, and/or in bright light. It also lasts longer on a single charge than the Nook does, although the Nook gets used for other stuff more often. It really depends on how you plan on, and where you plan on using your device.

Telos: What would you guys recommend for, say, a mom who barely touches computers but needs something to occassionally email and/or send out resumes. I was thinking something like the Asus eee Transformer and getting the keyboard doc for when she needs to type... I looked at the Fire and liked it, but it seems like the screen is just so tiny...

As many have said, get a cheap laptop. Normally I don't buy extended warranties, but I do when I buy laptops, even cheapass ones. I've had a power cable fail, the hinges seize up, and a few other fun problems, and the extended warranty was worth it. My brother has a laptop that had the extended warranty on it, and it went back twice with no issue. The bloody thing is now pushing 6 year old, and it's still running, although it's on its last legs: The thing is held together with electrical tape, and there's no touchpad left, it's a gaping hole. Say what you will about Acer being a shiatty brand, but I'm sold on their product after seeing my brother's Aspire. His Travelmate (yay for student grants), is in much better shape.

lordargent: Hacked Nook > kindle fire.

This! Have you tried the new ICS nightlies (new window) yet? I finally got some stability out of it last night once I ran the v6 Supercharger script (new window), GOlauncher is no longer crashing every 5 minutes. I really like ICS much more than Gingerbread.

Doc Daneeka: HotIgneous Intruder: Doc Daneeka: Thinking about picking up a Nook Tablet this weekend.

Better specs than the Fire in every way, plus a microSD slot, for only $50 more.

I looked at an issue of National Geographic on a color Nook the other day and it was spectacular. Small screen, though.

I think 7" is the size that I want though.

The wife has an iPad 2, and while it's a really nice device, the 10" size is a bit large for something I'd want to throw in my bag, carry around, and also use as an ereader.

If you go with the Nook, here's some stuff you might be interested in: Link

I've linked the Tablet specific forum, but I've depended upon them for my Color. In my previous post, I've linked the supercharger script, which is a godsend for the Nook. The Nook Tablet does has more memory, storage space, and a faster processor, but there's been tons more Android development work done on the Nook Color. As I said previously, I have a rooted Nook color, running a test version of CyanogenMod 9 (Ice Cream Sandwich), OC'ed to 1.2 GHz, with the v6 Supercharger script installed.

I know a lot of people love the crap out of the Kindle Fire, but the Nook is no slouch either. I love having the MicroSD slot, as it's much more convenient for rooting, and my 8GB Nook becomes a 40GB one. :D

I, like you, also prefer the smaller screen size, as it's much more comfortable for me to hold.

jingks: Is the Fire good for a lot of reading, or is it better to have a separate e-reader and tablet?

I still prefer to have a dedicated e-reader for books. Apart from the obvious benefits of the screen and battery life being measured in weeks, these things are getting tiny (while maintaining the same screen size) and most are under $100 now.

I own a 7" Galaxy Tab, an 8.9" Galaxy Tab and an ipad2, I've spent significant time with Motorola Xoom, Nook Color and Kindle Fire.

First thing: The ipad2 blows if you're not interested in Apple's content ecosystem. It has a low-resolution screen (1024x768), it's heavy for its size (1.3lbs I think?) and it's kind of a pain in the ass to add media to the stupid thing if you don't use itunes. Mostly, though, It's a sub-par e-Reader, media player and web browser, and for all of that it's not even particularly lightweight. I've probably used it for about four hours since I got it and I'm probably going to sell it.

Among the Android tablets, I most especially prefer the Galaxy Tab 8.9". It has a 1280x800 screen, same as the 10" Xoom, but weighs less than 1lb. and is comfortable to hold one handed for long periods of time, something that's very important for an E-reader. Samsung's tablets have very high quality IPS displays, which can be a big differentiating factor in Android-land.

The 7" Galaxy P1000 is also very nice (in particular, it's light and easy to hold), but with a 1024x600 screen, it's not as handy for viewing web pages or reading PDFs. It DOES have upgradeable storage, unlike the other devices. I use it in my car as a GPS and music player.

My biggest knock on the Xoom is the fact that it uses a cheap TN display. It looks dull compared to the Samsung tablets or the ipad2. It's also heavy enough to be problematic, though I think it still weighs less than the ipad2 (yes, hardbound books weigh more than one pound, but aren't quite as limited in how one has to hold them to see their contents, and it's not a big deal if one falls on the floor, either). It has a much closer-to-stock build of Android on it, and I believe there's an update to Ice Cream Sandwich available for it.

The Nook Color is a perfectly acceptable E-reader, though the default software load has some idiosyncrasies that have to be addressed via sideloaded apps or loading someone else's version of Android on it. Specs-wise, it's fairly similar to a 7" Galaxy in most aspects other than the CPU, though I've never actually had one side by side with one to compare the displays.

Finally, the Kindle Fire is an amazing device for the money provided you're already interested in Amazon's content offerings The integration with Amazon's ebooks, music store and streaming video is excellent, especially for people who have a subscription to Amazon Prime. BUT the default OS has a wonky user interface that I didn't like at all. I know it's a little bit slow compared to the Samsung and Motorola tablets, but the content service integration is as good as what Apple has, and it doesn't add insult to injury by costing three times as much, either. If I actually owned a Fire I would be installing CyanogenMod on it immediately, but it's just fine for someone who hasn't used anything else.